MySQL won't read password from configuration file - php

Question

I have an html form on my site and I am trying to process the data and then store it in a mysql database on my server. In order to connect securely to mysql via php, I have, as suggested here, placed the login information in a configuration file outside of the main webroot.
The code executes seamlessly when it is written like this:
<?php
$mysqli = mysqli_init( );
$mysqli->options(MYSQLI_READ_DEFAULT_FILE, "/this/is/the/filepath/to/my.cnf");
$mysqli->real_connect(NULL, NULL,'*********',NULL );
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
printf("Connect failed: ", mysqli_connect_error());
exit();
}
$email = $mysqli->real_escape_string($_POST['email']);
$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO subscribetest (email) VALUES ('$email')");
?>
But when I take the password out, like this:
<?php
$mysqli = mysqli_init( );
$mysqli->options(MYSQLI_READ_DEFAULT_FILE, "/this/is/the/filepath/to/my.cnf");
$mysqli->real_connect(NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL );
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
printf("Connect failed: ", mysqli_connect_error());
exit();
}
$email = $mysqli->real_escape_string($_POST['email']);
$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO subscribetest (email) VALUES ('$email')");
?>
The code crashes and I am given the error message: 'Warning: mysqli::real_connect(). Access denied for 'user'#'webaddress.net' (using password:NO)'
Why can my php script read everything EXCEPT the password from the config file? It is able to read the username, host, and database from the config file; the password is the only one which is left out. I've looked everywhere, spent hours on this, but I haven't been able to find any solutions. Has anyone else had this problem? What can I do?

Answer 1

The documentation says that setting the password parameter in real_connect() to NULL means "user does not need a password". Does it work if you call it without any parameters (they're all optional)?

Answer 2

This bug still seems to exist: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=43812
Workaround:
$iniData = file_get_contents('/etc/mysql/debian.cnf');
$iniData = preg_replace('/#.*$/m', '', $iniData);
$mysqlConfig = parse_ini_string($iniData, true);
$mysqli = new mysqli( $mysqlConfig['client']['host'], $mysqlConfig['client']['user'], $mysqlConfig['client']['password'] );
if ( $mysqli->connect_error ) {
die(sprintf("MySQL Connect Error: %s", $mysqli->connect_error));
}